Operations Manager

OPERATIONS MANAGER

Location: Boston, MA

WHO IS FIRSTCALL GROUP?

LC Anderson is a commercial HVACR company based in Boston. Founded in 1943, LC Anderson services various customers across the greater Boston area. Founded in 1943, LCA partnered with FirstCall Mechanical in 2025

FirstCall Group is a commercial and industrial HVAC, building controls, electrical, and plumbing services company. We serve commercial and industrial customers, including distribution centers, cold storage facilities, food manufacturing facilities, universities, and other commercial properties. FirstCall has approximately 290 employees and operations across Virginia, Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, and Texas. We are actively growing our operations across the country.

FirstCall Mechanical not only partners with companies to nurture growth in the market, but also provides equal focus on employee growth and development as well.  We believe when YOU succeed, we all succeed, so we strive to be the first call for talented team members who want a career, not just a job.

BENEFITS OVERVIEW 

FirstCall Mechanical values our employees' well-being, growth, and success! Employees are offered a robust benefits package, including:  

• Competitive Weekly Pay 
• Comprehensive Healthcare Coverage - Medical, Dental, Vision, + More (Includes some 100% Company-paid plans) 
• Financial Resources - 401(k) Retirement Savings Plan with a 5% match, Life Insurance, Short & Long-Term Disability 
• Time-Off & Holidays - Up to 4 weeks of Paid Off, 9 Paid Holidays + Veterans Day for Veterans 
• Career Growth & Development- Company-sponsored education and career advancement programs like the FirstCall Academy, the Learning & Education Assistance Program (LEAP), and the FirstCall Progression Program 
• Generous Referral Bonus of $2,500 per referral 
• Role-Specific Perks - Company vehicle or allowance, mobile phone or phone allowance, uniforms, and work boot allowances

The Opportunity

We are seeking a Projects Operations Manager to own the projects book end to end, from the handoff out of estimating through job close. This is a hands-on operating role, not an administrative one. You will own gross margin on every job, run the monthly WIP and job-cost review, lead and develop the project management team, and make sure no job starts without a defensible cost behind it. You will report to the Branch President and work closely with estimating, service operations and finance.

Key Responsibilities

• Own the project book. Revenue, gross margin, and work in progress for all quoted, modernization, and construction work at the branch.
• Own the estimate-to-execution handoff. Every job starts with a baseline the team agrees to. The estimate is what the job gets measured against, and nothing is released to the field without a fully loaded labor cost behind it.
• Run the monthly job cost and WIP review. Current estimate at completion on every active job, cost to complete, billing position, and a written explanation of anything that moved. Underbillings and unapproved change orders are identified, aged and worked, not discovered at close.
• Lead the project management team. Assignment, workload balance, standards of practice, and a development path for PMs and assistant PMs. Build and recruit the bench.
• Own schedule and resource planning. Manpower loading across concurrent jobs, coordination with service operations when field labor is shared, and realistic completion dates the branch can commit to.
• Own safety on every site. Site-specific plans, toolbox talks, subcontractor compliance, and incident follow-through. No exceptions on project work.
• Manage change orders and claims. Identify scope change early, price it, get it approved before the work is performed, and protect the branch's position on documentation and retainage.
• Own purchasing and subcontractor performance. Buyout against the estimate, vendor and subcontractor accountability, and material flow that does not stall the field.
• Carry customer relationships through delivery. Be the operational face of the branch to owners, general contractors, and engineers once the job is sold.
• Close jobs properly. Punch, closeout documentation, final billing and retainage collection on a schedule, not when someone asks.

Qualifications

QUALIFICATIONS

• 10+ years in commercial mechanical, HVAC, or building-systems project delivery, with progressive leadership responsibility.
• Direct experience leading a project management team, with accountability for a book of projects and its gross margin.
• Fluent in job cost, work in progress, percentage of completion, and estimate at completion. Able to explain a margin movement without help from finance.
• Strong command of the estimating-to-execution handoff, buyout, change order management and closeout.
• Demonstrated ownership of field safety on active job sites.
• Comfortable operating in a structured, accountable, professionally managed environment with real reporting discipline.

Preferred

• Experience with BuildOps, Procore or a comparable project and job-cost platform.
• Self-perform mechanical, sheet metal, controls or electrical background.
• Design-build and plan-and-spec delivery, including CAD and BIM coordination.
• Construction management, mechanical engineering or a trade-to-management career path.

What Success Looks Like in the First Six to Twelve Months

• Every active job has a current estimate at completion and a named owner and is updated weekly.
• The monthly WIP review runs on a fixed date, and the numbers hold up to challenge.
• No job is bid or released without a fully loaded labor cost behind it.
• Underbilled work and unapproved change orders are visible, aged and being worked.
• Project management workload is balanced, and every PM has a development plan.
• The branch delivers its project’s gross margin plan.
• Estimate reviews on projects over $100K

FirstCall does not accept unsolicited resumes, employment applications or inquiries from recruiters, employment agencies or individual job seekers. Applicants who are selected to proceed to the next stage of FirstCall’s process will be contacted directly by a member of our team. Please note that we are unable to provide individual feedback to all applicants. Applications will stay active in our system for 60 days, and after 60 days applicants will need to reapply for the role.